MM Laguna Seca Report

[G.Irish]

The Eagle has landed!

Got into Oaktown (from Oakland to Sactown, the bay area and back down...) at about 9:45 am. Took a little over an hour to drive down to the Holiday Inn in Morgan Hill which is about 45 min to 1 hr from the track. Weather is pretty mild out here, more like spring time weather. I'm already seeing sport bikes passing by on the highway packed up with gear for the event (respol 1000RR just passed by ).

I'm going to drive down to Monterey now to check out the town before the crush comes on. I'll try to post some photos every night.

-G

[Sijray21]

sweet...i wish i was back there, it was gorgeous

[G.Irish]

The track is simply stunning! The elevation changes are much more dramatic than I thought they'd be, its practically on top of a group of tall hills.







These karts are so fast they need downforce y0!

This is a prototype of an all new American bike that will be debuted in Moto GP next season. It has a lot of unorthodox technology in it like its V4 engine with counterrotating cranks (that is two cranks that rotate in opposite directions) and the twin spring swingarm. There's a really good article about it in Robb Report Motorcycling that I'll post when I get back.





These guys are worse procrastinators than us, they don't even have the engine in there

Caption this please:

[BLINGMW]

hmm I forgot about this trip

[.RJ]

Oh my

[Myuki]

some good shots :thumbup:

[G.Irish]

Welcome to day 2 of your official Madison Motorsports Laguna Seca Moto GP coverage. For those of you who want gear make sure to read the bottom.

Left the hotel at a little after 5:30 to beat the hordes to the track. Checked out the vendor area before the first practice was scheduled and was kinda surprised to see most of them didn't have their stands set up and ready for business yet. F'ing slackers.

Anyway the AMA Supersport practice was first. Nothing too dramatic or spectacular but still pleasurable to watch. Nothing like the gentle aroma of unburned race fuel wafting over the breeze :twisted:

Something I found interesting was the difference in throttle application between some of the front runners (like the Haydens and the factory Yamaha boys). You could hear the faster guys rolling onto the throttle very smoothly and not chopping or cutting it at all. Neat stuff.

AMA Superbike came out next so I stood on the hill next to turn 2 (the double apex first 'real' turn of the track). Some of the guys like Mladin and Zemke were slipping the rear end on corner entry. I have some of that on video I believe.

So on to the GP bikes. Everyone was at attention as they rolled out and all of the Americans (Edwards, Hayden, Hopkins, Roberts) got a big roar of applause on their outlap.

I knew the Moto GP bikes were loud but I was still shocked and amazed by the sound. For one, all of the 'big bang' bikes sound rather throaty. Sort of a guttural scream if you could imagine it. The bikes are not really high-pitched at all, just very high amplitude.

Like a stupid ass I forgot my ear plugs at home but luckily I got some free ones at the Honda tent.

Anyway, at first the GP guys were going pretty slow around the circuit but when they started to crank it up it was pretty dramatic. About halfway through the first practice the announcer...announced that the 4 American riders held the top 4 spots. However, by the end of it Troy Bayliss (who had won at Laguna before in World Superbike) would take the fastest lap of the day followed closely by Nicky Hayden.

Watching the GP guys from the front straight you got a feel for the sheer ferocity of the acceleration of the bikes. All of the riders were fighting to keep the front wheel on the ground on every shift up the front straight. One of the Blata riders easily wheeled the entire length of the straigh up to the bridge (you can goof off like that when you're in last place eh?).

I had a hard time finding a good spot that was close to the track to take pics, hopefully I'll do better tomorrow. For now, enjoy.

Real Honda Power!


The man himself (shot this through a photog's hole in the fence)




Old skool baybee




The coolest spectator bike by faaaarrrrrr. Its got a V8 :twisted:




People who want gear

There wasn't much in the way of polo type stuff for sale. One vendor had official team button up shirts (with the full tobacco badging (Telefonica Movistar Honda, Ducati, Renault, Ferrari, McLaren) but they wanted $120 each.

Suzuki had some very cool hats for about $20 as well as some affordably priced tshirts and a race team polo for $40. Yamaha had a whole line of retro yellow and black apparel including tees, backpacks, and like 5 different hats. They also had some traditional blue apparel. Kawasaki had a few nice tshirts and hats for sale and there was a good amount of Ducati hats. Take a look at the last two pics for some of the stuff.

Let me know from this group if there is anything specific (like a particular rider) you'd want or prefer. Give me a price range too. There is smaller stuff like keychains and what not that I can buy if that's your bag baby.

[G.Irish]

More pics: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.superbikeplanet.com/image/2005mgp/lagunaseca/2/">http://www.superbikeplanet.com/image/20 ... unaseca/2/</a><!-- m -->

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.superbikeplanet.com/image/2005mgp/lagunaseca/3/">http://www.superbikeplanet.com/image/20 ... unaseca/3/</a><!-- m -->

[Mike]

mmmm v8 mofo

[ScottyB]

nice report G. that old school honda bike looks pimp as hell btw.

something like a ducati hat would rock if you see a nice one (ill leave that up to your discretion)....around 20 bucks would be fine. thanks man.

did you notice any glaring differences between the way the big bang bikes exited certain corners, and in what fashion? i'm interested in the differences in powerbands and what affect that has on the riding style and power transfer to this track.

[Sijray21]

wow, that's awesome G

that looks like a fun place to be for a weekend

for the hats, any yellow/black yamaha hat with rossi's or edwards' number or any "quality" hat would be awesome, i don't really care about the cost and i'll have cash for you when i see you in the northern va area

[navin]

Jagermeister v8 bike :drool:

[Evan]

oh man, thats exactly the kind of hideous shirts I was talking about.
It looks like someone vomited all over the shirts after eating skittles.

If they have something more low key, like with a repsol logo and #69/Hayden that would be perfect

[Evan]

W00t!!11 Nicky on the pole!

[G.Irish]

Yeah there is a lot of gawdy stuff out there. Its kind of stupid that the GP teams didn't set up booths to sell their apparel in the vendor area, they would've made a ton of money. Yamaha, Kawasaki, Suzuki, and Ducati were all selling apparel in their spectator tents though, just not GP stuff.

One of the coolest parts of the day was when the Honda guys brought the RC166 and later the RC181 and started them up. They were GP bikes from the 60's the RC166 being the first Honda to really start winning championships.

The RC166 was a 250cc V6 with a 19000 rpm redline. Loud doesn't even begin to describe the way this thing sounded but glorious doesn't do it justice either. I've got video of the 166 and 181.

After the superbike race I also happened to get video of some brief interviews with all of the Honda riders except Gibernau. I also saw David Alan Grier from In Living Color in the background of the Honda tent.

Anyway if I don't fall asleep I might post pics here.

[G.Irish]

Hats! Suzuki (Free), Yammy (Jason), Ducati (Scotty), Honda Racing (me), Honda Wing (Free)

[mrbaggio]

Any other colors in the honda wing hat?

-Justin

[ScottyB]

thanks G!! that hat looks great.


those facts about the 166 are astounding. i had no idea they had 6 cylinder gp bikes, let alone ones that were doing 19k rpm in the 1960's!

[navin]

damn - if they have a fitted black honda wing hat I'd be happy to paypal you for your troubles :0

[JackoliciousLegs]

man, that looks like such a fun time!